Battles Lost and Won
by Yin Long Nocturne
Summary: When Voldemort rises again Harry is unable to stop him, he dies on the Tower, caught in Dumbledore's body and falling to his death. Hermione, battle scarred and world weary already, happily snaps her wand in front court, lead by Delores, that accuses her of wand stealing. Oneshot (may be extended in future).
A/N: Harry's death is described, via Hermione's recollections, in some detail (fourth paragraph, if you want to avoid it).

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When Voldemort rises again Harry is unable to stop him, he dies on the Tower, caught in Dumbledore's body and falling to his death. Hermione, battle scarred and world weary already, happily snaps her wand in front court, lead by Delores, that accuses her of wand stealing.

"Yes, I stole my wand from the shop of Ollivander, in Diagon Alley, a month after my eleventh birthday. Now, I will be returning to the muggle world where I belong. I happily relinquish any and all claims I might have had, or mistakenly believed I had, on the Wizarding World, including any possessions and monetary assets. You will never see me again." She says, looking them all in the eye and snaps her wand. Feels it crack beneath her fingers, the slight puff of magic as the dragon heartstring tears.

Then in stunned silence, she turns and walks right out. Out of the courtroom, out of the Ministry of Magic, and out of Wizarding Britain entirely. She walks out onto the London sidewalk above the Ministry on a dreary, drizzly day. She sheds her outer robe, and leaves in the telephone box, thankful that she'd never integrated enough to feel comfortable wearing them 'wizard traditional'. In dark slacks and white collared shirt over polished dress shoes, Hermione looks just like any other passerby, if perhaps a little foolish for the lack of a coat. Still, she presses a hand to the side of the telephone box and mutters a memorial to Harry Potter before she leaves the Wizarding World to rot.

Her eyes are hard when she sets determinedly off through streets of London, she'd cried all her tears in the days after they'd found Harry's body. Found the twisted limbs and shocked, terrified eyes buried underneath Dumbledore's peaceful expression and perfect form. Dumbledore's death had been a clean one, an Avada Kedavra by a Death Eater ending his life quickly, but Harry had died on impact after falling from the top of the Astronomy Tower, bones breaking, brain rattled in his skull and chest crushed by Dumbledore's dead weight landing atop him.

It had barely been a month later that Voldemort had taken over the Ministry, Thicknesse replacing Fudge and paving the way for a shadow court to form in the confusion. Hermione had heard that Snape had been installed as Headmaster, and hadn't bothered thinking about going back to Hogwarts. Not long into the summer holidays, the Daily Prophet had been running headlines on the new laws being passed. 'Reformation of Regulation of Magical Beasts Laws'. 'Reclassification of Squibs, Hedgewizards, and Muggleborns to Magical Beast status'. 'Legalization of the term Mudblood'. 'Reinstatement of Dark Arts classes at Hogwarts'. 'Legalization of Unforgivables on Magical Beasts'. 'Reduction of Azkaban time sentenced for crimes against Magical Beasts'.

When she'd seen the first of the new laws pass, she'd gone into Diagon Alley one Sunday afternoon. Just hung around in the Leaky Cauldron, and wandered aimlessly around the Alley, listening to the gossip of the Wizarding families there. They confirmed what she had suspected, but feared: the Wizarding public wasn't going to protest the new laws against Muggleborns. They had been primed by the smear campaign headed up by Rita Skeeter against Albus Dumbledore and his ideals, and now believed that Muggleborns and Muggles were to blame for everything from the death of Cedric Diggory - despite the obvious evidence that he died because of an Avada Kedavra - to the rising number of squib births

Hermione had tried to send a letter to Ron - Hedwig had found her way to Hermione when she'd stumbled off Platform Nine and Three Quarter's still lost in a haze of grief at the start of summer - when it came back unopened she had decided. It was clear that there would be no help from within the Wizarding World, but there would likely be retribution. The day she received the official summons from the Ministry, Hermione hugged her mother and father tight. She told them she loved them, and thanked them for never hating her, despite her magic, and then she altered their memories. Wendell and Monica Wilkins were two utterly normal people, with a dream of living in Australia. They'd never had a daughter, although if they did they would have named her Hermione; a nice, unusual first name.

Her parents left on holiday the day she went into the Ministry for her 'hearing'. She had overheard them talking about wanting to visit a few places before the decided on a new location to settle while she packed up her things. All her Wizarding things were packed into her Hogwarts trunk, to be locked into Gringotts. All her Muggle clothes, select books and the sleeping bag and tent they'd used for camping her all packed into two duffel bags. She then transfigured the room to look like a second study, and rehung her mother's certificates on the wall next to the door.

The duffels she took and placed into a locker at the local gym before summoning the Knight Bus to take into Magical London for the last time. At Gringotts, she asked the teller to remove all items and funds from the vault that had been set up under the name Hermione Jean Granger. Then she asked to open a new vault, this one under the name 'Hedvig'. After depositing all her Wizarding effects and the small number of galleons that had been exchanged over the years, Hermione paid extra to add a, password of sorts, to the security measures Gringotts had by default on all their vaults.

"If anyone wants to access this vault in future, they need to be able to answer the following. 'If death is neither largest nor smallest, and wine is always bitter, the sweetest thing is always in the middle and sourest either side. Where do the smallest and largest fit?' If they cannot answer, refuse them access." Hermione knows that it's likely her vault will never open to anyone within the Wizarding world, logic is something far beyond most Pureblood wizards. But she enjoys the thought of the Ministry's best stuck on a simple riddle devised by a lowly Mudblood.

She leaves Gringotts with only the robe on her back and the wand in her pocket as the only things of Wizarding origin. By the end of the day, she knows she will have neither.


End file.
